The invention relates to managing data in an automatic call distribution.
CTI methods and procedures for automatic call distribution are used particularly for the operation of call centers. CTI in this case is an abbreviation for “Computer and Telephone Integration” and is a collective term for telephonic communication applications to enable telephone calls to be more easily managed with the aid of a personal computer. This collective term covers basic functionalities such as selecting data from a database, recording notes during a call or displaying call notes, that in addition to other work procedures are fundamental for the operation of call centers.
ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) is used for the distribution and management of calls within a call center for and at individual workstations. The technical term ACD in this case describes a powerful application of the CTI principle to a call center architecture and includes a standard range of basic performance features such as queuing field control, alternative routing control, announcements, music superimposition, call distribution to ACD agents, creation of statistics and other features.
Individual workstations in call centers and employees at these workstations are designated as agents, ACD agents or agent workstations. The term agent in this case describes an employee in a call center, whereas the term ACD agent refers to the hard and software equipment of the workstation in the call center and expresses the connection and networking of individual workstations in the higher-level structure of the ACD (Automatic Call Distribution). In the following, the term “agent workstation” is used as a synonym for the term “agent” or “ACD agent”, unless otherwise stated.
ANI (Automatic Number Identification) is a further basic term. This term refers to a performance feature of a call number identification of a caller in a switched network, for example in an ISDN network.
The term IVR (Interactive Voice Response Unit) is frequently used in the area of the devices and equipment of a call center. This term covers all of the procedures and components required to perform an automated voice-supported telephone dialogue using a telephone keypad. The term interactive voice response unit and the abbreviation IVS used in this technical field then describes both the method and the components and procedural steps required for it.
Furthermore, a DNIS service is spoken of in the following connection. DNIS means Dialed Number Identification Service and describes a service used essentially to generate a sequence of characters that displays a number dialed by a caller and, furthermore, determines how the call to the call center is to be processed. The DNIS service, for example, determines whether a call is to be forwarded to an order receiving service or a technical service within the call center.
According to the related art, calls to call centers are essentially processed in that the incoming calls are sent through to individual agents of the call center by ACD and passed on to the agent with the customer data linked to the caller data. The data required for this is taken from an existing database of a business. This data usually includes existing business connections of the company and of the caller. This business-relevant information is provided to the agent through the caller by a monitor at his workstation. This procedure of coupling and ACD switching and displaying business-relevant caller information is called “screen popup”.
This coupling is achieved in that accompanying information is sent to the ACD agent parallel to the ACD forwarding. The accompanying information mainly contains data from an ANI identification, parameters from a DNIS service or data from the IVR unit. On the basis of this information, the terminal of the ACD agent searches the existing database for information suitable for the caller and displays this on a monitor in the ACD workstation.
A procedure of this kind has some series disadvantages and inadequacies. A first disadvantage is that access to caller data is only possible when the call has actually been put through to the ACD agent and accepted there. If there is a heavy load on the call center in main call period or there is a large number of calls, it often means that a considerably amount of time is required, which is particularly irritating for the caller, because he is sometimes assigned to a queue when his call has already actually been put through to the relevant ACD agent, because the customer data is not yet available at the ACD agent.
A further disadvantage is in the absence of data security, because the ACD agent must be allowed full access rights to the database of the company. Because many businesses do not operate their own call centers but instead transfer operations of this kind to other service providers for reasons of cost or operational considerations, this means that the service provider has full access to the internal data of the company. A procedure of this kind is undesirable for reasons of data protection and the protection of business secrecy and should if possible be avoided. The same applies to workstations in teleworking procedures. There is also in this case a considerable security risk with state of the art procedures.